Title: Writing plugin question
Last modified: August 18, 2016

---

# Writing plugin question

 *  [Doodlebee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doodlebee/)
 * (@doodlebee)
 * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/writing-plugin-question/)
 * Had a quick question here – this is just a basic thing that I can’t find.
 * I’m looking to write a custom function. I have a database query that I want to
   use for several different purposes – so rather than calling in the database query
   over and over again to spit out the alternate output, I wanted to just use the*
   same* query and add things (like hooks or filters? I think?) and create different
   outputs with the data I’m retrieving.
 * I can’t seem to get the syntax right. What I have so far is this:
 *     ```
       $query = ("SELECT stuff FROM tables WHERE rows do this stuff");
   
       $query_data = $wpdb->get_row($query, ARRAY_A);
       //make my list of varibles here
       ```
   
 * Now, I wanted to turn this into a function…so something like:
 *     ```
       function get_query_stuff() {
       //put the above example code in this spot
   
       //put in formatted output here
       }
       ```
   
 * However, like I said, this works *great* for displaying the specified formatted
   output by adding the `<?php get_query_stuff();?>` into a template file. It’ll
   display exactly what I want.
 * But I’d like to do something else where it’s more like:
 *     ```
       function get_query_stuff($tag1, $tag2, $tag3) {
       // example code - the actual query and variables - here
   
       $tag1 = variable stuff output in a certain way here
       $tag2 = other stuff in a different format
       $tag3 = more stuff in yet another format
       }
       ```
   
 * I’m new to this plugin stuff, and of course the above isn’t working for crap.
   So I was hoping someone could give me a rough outline of the structure to achieve
   what I want. I’d like to just be able to insert something like `<?php get_query_stuff('
   tag1'); ?>` into my template file so it’ll display the output for $tag1 – but
   it’s just not going. I’ve tried looking at other plugins – but I think what *
   I* am looking for is a little more basic than the stuff I have, and I can’t seem
   to wrap my head around it by looking at the complicated plugins. I don’t even
   know the exact terminology I’m looking for, so my search results are hit-or-miss.
 * So can someone pass me a really simple example of how to do this? I don’t need
   code to perform a specific thing, I just want to know a basic layout to accomplish
   this. I’ve tried reading the codex on hooks and filters – but it doesn’t provide
   any examples (that I can find) on inserting multiple variables into *one* function–
   I can add filters to wp_meta() and such, but I want to add the filter directly
   into the function I’m writing, and then call it in later.
 * Hope I’m not too confusing! Any help is appreciated 🙂

The topic ‘Writing plugin question’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 0 replies
 * 1 participant
 * Last reply from: [Doodlebee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doodlebee/)
 * Last activity: [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/writing-plugin-question/)
 * Status: not resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics